Trip report: Ethiopia custom tour (Jan 2019) by Tropical Birding

Guided by Phil Chaon. This was a custom tour with an itinerary similar to that of our set departure tour.

To put it simply, Ethiopia is a country that needs to be seen to be understood. Every first visit is a world-changing re-conceptualization of the kingdom of Abyssinia. Any preconceived notions of what Ethiopia is as a country fall woefully short of the shocking variety found here. Ethiopia is a country of towering mountains where Gelada graze, lush montane forests where sunlight never reaches the dozing Abyssinian Owls and golden savannas where families of Stresemann’s Bushcrow move among the terra cotta towers of termites. It is a country where pink-crowned birds the size of pheasants can disappear for a hundred years, where wolves still roam lunar plateaus and dusty plains hold the secrets of where humanity began.
In only seventeen days we manage to see an impressive swath of what Ethiopia has to offer, though the possibility for new discovery makes each trip unique and exciting. On this tour we managed to see 500 species of birds including all but one of Ethiopia’s endemics. However, birding Ethiopia isn’t just about numbers and lists – few places on earth offer intimate and extended encounters with rare endemics the way this country does. If you want to not only see the birds but really enjoy them – this is a location that can’t be missed.